A new Covid-19 variant called Omicron is spreading throughout the world and public health officials are worried about its transmissibility. President Biden addressed the nation saying, "this variant is a cause for concern — not a cause for panic." But the variant is reigniting anxieties about the pandemic.This episode: White House Correspondent Tamara Keith, White House correspondent Scott Detrow, and health correspondent Allison Aubrey.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [email protected] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.

In order to resist a congressional investigation into the January 6th insurrection, former President Trump and his associates are claiming executive privilege. They say the communication between a president and his advisers should remain confidential. Congress says it wants to get to the bottom of what the president knew. So where does executive privilege come from, and does it take precedent over congress' power to investigate?This episode: White House correspondent Asma Khalid and national justice correspondent Carrie Johnson.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [email protected] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.

Cokie Roberts was one of NPR's "Founding Mothers," a pioneering journalist whose career blazed a trail for generations of women at the network. NPR's Tamara Keith and Nina Totenberg talk to Cokie's husband Steve Roberts about the ways in which she was also a role model in her personal life. Steve Roberts new book about his wife is Cokie: A Life Well Lived.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [email protected] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.

Though it has grown more popular with time, the Affordable Care Act was widely disliked by the public in 2010 and cost Democrats dearly in the midterms. Democrats failed to successfully explain the legislation's benefits in the face of Republican attacks. Could Biden's infrastructure plan and, should it pass, social programs bill face the same fate?And the investigation into what role former President Trump played in the January 6th attack on the Capitol, led by House Democrats, has interviewed more than 200 people. Investigators are weighing a contempt of Congress vote against another top aide, then-Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.This episode: demographics and culture correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben, congressional reporter Claudia Grisales, and acting congressional correspondent Deirdre Walsh.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [email protected] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.

More than 100,000 people died from a drug overdose in the 12-month period beginning April 2020. Despite a growing consensus that recognizes addiction as a public health problem, many effective interventions like safe consumption sites and needle exchanges are politically unpopular and legally complex.This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro, and addiction correspondent Brian Mann.Connect:Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.Email the show at [email protected] the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.Listen to our playlist The NPR Politics Daily Workout.Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.Find and support your local public radio station.